by Daniel Harms
Following his retirement, Akeley moved back into the ancestral mansion near Townshend. Near the end of his life, he wrote frequent letters to the young Professor Wilmarth on the legends of his region. Akeley vanished in September of 1928, following wild stories and bouts of paranoia which led many of his neighbors to believe that the aged scholar had lost his mind. Some say he returned to Earth later in mysterious circumstances.
See Akeley, George Goodenough; Wilmarth, Albert. (“The Whisperer in Darkness”, Lovecraft (O); “Documents in the Case of Elizabeth Akeley”, Lupoff; “Disconnected”, Sammons.)
AKLO
Language of the Valusian serpent-men. It is still used in a modified form by the priests of the Great Old Ones (to whom it was given by their masters), as well as the Little People of Welsh legend. The term “Aklo” may also be used to refer to a series of magical rituals (see below), or a specific time at which an incantation should be performed.
E. A. Hitchcock’s book Remarks upon Alchemy makes reference to “the now unattainable secrets of the AKLO tablets”, a set of writings which has never been discovered. However, Alonzo Typer, an occultist of some note, might have read these “Aklo writings” or others, as he described rituals known as the Aklo formulae in his diary. The third of these formulae is useful in making the unseen visible, but the proper use of the rest remains a mystery.
[One occultist has suggested to me that Aklo bears many similarities to Enochian, the pre-human language John Dee supposedly discovered through contact with angels and used by occult groups until the present. Though most passages usually considered to be Aklo have little resemblance to Enochian, the link does bring up some interesting possibilities. (See especially “Aklo Sabaoth” and “Aklo Unveilings”.)]
See Aklo Sabaoth; Aklo Unveilings; Iä; Kuen-Yuin; Remnants of Lost Empires. (Letter (9/23/94), Az0th; The Necronomicon, Culp; Keeper’s Compendium, Herber; “Aliah Warden”, Johnson; “The Haunter of the Dark”, Lovecraft; “The Diary of Alonzo Typer”, Lovecraft and Lumley; “The White People”, Machen (O); “Plant y Daear”, Ross; “The Return of the Lloigor”, Wilson.)
AKLO SABAOTH (or AKLO FOR THE SABAOTH)
Formula in the Aklo language used to invoke extradimensional beings. The Aklo Sabaoth may only be performed on clear nights when the moon is in its first phase. It is only effective for those spirits that are “answerable from the hill”; there may be another version which will invoke those of the air.
Some have linked the Aklo Sabaoth with John Dee’s incantations known as the “Enochian Keys”, as the nineteenth Key summons the angels of the “Aires”. Thus, the version that calls the spirits of the hill might be an inferior variant of the original Aklo Sabaoth. It should also be noticed that “Sabaoth” is the Hebrew word for “Hosts,” a term usually used for angels. All of this is speculation, and experimenters are advised to be cautious.
See Aklo. (Letter (9/23/94), Az0th; “The Tower on Yuggoth”, Campbell; “The Dunwich Horror”, Lovecraft (O).)
AKLO UNVEILINGS
Levels of initiation in the cult of Glaaki. A cult member may undergo up to forty-eight of these Unveilings, and the forty-ninth takes place when Glaaki calls his worshiper to him for the last time. It is interesting to note that John Dee’s Enochian system of magic also includes forty-eight Keys, or incantations, as well as an unknown forty-ninth which could invoke God.
See Aklo; Glaaki. (Letter (9/23/94), Az0th; “The Inhabitant of the Lake”, Campbell; Selected Letters IV, Lovecraft (O).)
AL AZIF (also KITAB AL-AZIF)
Original Arabic title for Alhazred’s Necronomicon. Al-Azif supposedly refers to the sounds made by insects at night, which the people of Alhazred’s time took to be the calls of djinn. The occultist Kenneth Grant has noted the buzzing noises heard during magical rituals and flying saucers encounters as a possible explanation for the title. Others, though, have given alternate meanings for Al Azif, such as “to soar or fly”.
[Lovecraft took this name from a footnote in Beckford’s Vathek.]
See Alhazred, Abdul; Necronomicon (appendices); Philetas, Theodorus; Sadowsky, Phileus P. (Outside the Circles of Time, Grant; “History of the Necronomicon”, Lovecraft; “The Last Test”, Lovecraft and de Castro (O); Ex Libris Miskatonici, Stanley.)
ALALA
Being alluded to in the infamous Green Book. Alala is a Great Old One who is a native of the Gulf of S’glhuo. It is a sound that can manifest itself as a huge monstrous being, and the Gulf’s inhabitants serve and fear it.
[Alala turned up as the name of a deity for both the Greeks and the Mesopotamians. Whether Machen knew this or not is unknown.]
See Green Book; S’glhuo. (“The Plain of Sound”, Campbell; “The White People”, Machen (O); “The Voice of the Animals”, Adair.)
ALAOZAR
Legendary city located on the fabled Plateau of Sung. The city was built upon the Isle of Stars, where extraterrestrial beings landed thousands of years ago, within the Lake of Dread. No party of explorers has ever found this site, but it is a holy place for the Tcho-tcho people. Beneath Alaozar lie the caverns in which Lloigor and Zhar dwell. If reports from the Burmese interior are accurate, this city may have been destroyed.
See E-poh; Lloigor; Sung; Zhar; Zhou Texts. (“The Lair of the Star-Spawn”, Derleth and Schorer (O).)
ALAR
1) Character from the play The King in Yellow, in one account. 2) City that besieges the metropolis of Hastur in the same play, according to others.
See Demhe; Hastur; King in Yellow; Yhtill. (“More Light”, Blish; “The Repairer of Reputations”, Chambers (O); “Tell Me, Have You Seen the Yellow Sign?”, Ross.)
ALDONES
1) Character who seeks the throne of Yhtill in The King in Yellow. 2) The founder of the city of Hastur’s ruling dynasty in the same play.
See King in Yellow; Last King. (“More Light”, Blish; “The Repairer of Reputations”, Chambers (O); “Tell Me, Have You Seen the Yellow Sign?”, Ross.)
ALHAZRED, ABDUL (also ABD AL-AZRAD) (655?–738)
Poet and mystic of Sanna in Yemen, best known for his Kitab al-Azif (later re-titled Necronomicon). The deeds of this man, who is said to have been a descendent of the mythical tribe of Ad, are still matters of legend in the Middle East.
The early life of Abdul Alhazred remains a mystery. Several different and contradictory accounts have appeared:
Our first mention of Alhazred is during his travel to Egypt, where he studied necromancy under the wizard Yakthoob. After his master’s death, he led Yakthoob’s disciples on his travels, until most of them were destroyed. (Carter)
Alhazred — who in this account is unnamed — was a young shepherd who narrowly escaped death when he witnessed a cult of the Old Ones. Having seen their power, he forsook his former life. (Levenda)
The son of a prostitute and a silver merchant, Alhazred was recognized as a brilliant scholar even in his youth. He married into the family of the Governor of Tabez and had two children. Shortly thereafter, he seemed to become possessed by a demon, turning to impious conduct. Being brought before the Caliph for judgment, he was cast into the desert. (St. Albans.)
Alhazred was a young herder’s son who was brought to the court of King Hasan of Sana’a due to his beautiful voice. He lived in the palace for many years as a favored son of the court. Due to an affair with the king’s daughter, Alhazred was mutilated and abandoned in the depths of the desert. (Tyson)
Alhazred grew up in a poor family and gained recognition for himself as a soldier. Finding the work not to his taste, he apprenticed himself to a silk merchant, becoming enamored of one of his customers. Upon learning that she was the lover of a local prince, Alhazred absconded with the business’ profits. (Larkin)
No matter what Alhazred’s origin, the substance of his later life is less debated. He is known to have spent much time in the Empty Quarter of the Arabian desert, where he discovered both Irem, the City of Pillars, and the Nameless City. In search of mystical knowledge, h
e made extensive travels throughout the Middle East and beyond. The exact destinations are debatable, but Alexandria, Memphis, and Babylon are commonly named stops upon his route. In the end, he dwelt in Damascus, where he penned the Al Azif.
In his Biographical Dictionary, Ibn Khallikan tells of an invisible beast devouring the “mad” poet in the marketplace of Damascus in the middle of the day. Even this legend is disputed; some state it is a confused re-telling of his former trance-states or the death of his master Yakthoob. Others claim that his death was illusory and that he was borne off to the Nameless City to be tortured and killed. A few heretics of his time proclaimed that he returned to the Empty Quarter, from which he would one day return. Legend has it that his voice can still be heard in the insects of the desert, teaching apprentice magicians his forgotten lore.
It seems that an earlier scribe who copied the Necronomicon made an error with regard to the name of the book’s author, as “Abdul Alhazred” has no real meaning in Arabic. Scholars have suggested various solutions to the puzzle of the mad Arab’s true name:
Abd al-Azrad, “the worshiper of the great devourer” (from “abd” = worshiper/servant, “al” = the, Azrad = “strangler/ devourer”) (Hamblin)
Abd Al-’Uzza, “servant of Al-Uzza [a pre-Muslim goddess]” (Stanley)
Abdallah Zahr-ad-Din, “Servant-of-God Flower-of-the-Faith” (given the mad Arab’s religion, an unlikely name at best) (de Camp)
al-Hazred, a name which has only kept its meaning of “one-who-sees-what-shouldn’t-be-seen” in Yemenite (Farmer)
Aside from the Necronomicon, only a few of Alhazred’s works have survived, including the short story “Al Jeldah” (“The Scourge”) and a few of his poems, which were quite popular with the nobles of his time.
[“Abdul Alhazred” was a play-name of Lovecraft’s that either he or the Whipple family lawyer, Albert Baker, invented when HPL was very young.]
See Al Azif; Book of Thoth; ghouls; Great Old Ones; Hadoth; Ibn Ghazi; Ibn Schacabao; Irem; Kara-Shehr; Lamp of Alhazred; Leng; Maze of the Seven Thousand Crystal Frames; Nameless City; Necrolatry; Necronomicon (appendices); shoggoths; That is not dead...; Yakthoob; Yhe Rituals. (“The Doom of Yakthoob”, Carter; “In the City of Pillars”, Carter; “Mnomquah”, Carter; “The Shadow from the Stars”, Carter; “The Thing under Memphis”, Carter; “The Vault beneath the Mosque”, Carter; “A Brief Biography of Abdul Alhazred”, Cornford; “Foreword” to Al Azif, de Camp; “The City without a Name”, Hamblin; “Notes on a Fragment of the Necronomicon”, Hamblin; Keeper’s Compendium, Herber; “The Saga of Abdul Alhazred”, Larkin; Necronomicon, Levenda; “History of the Necronomicon”, Lovecraft; “The Nameless City”, Lovecraft (O); “The Transition of Abdul Alhazred”, Price; “The Life of the Master”, St. Albans; “The Scourge”, Saplak; Ex Libris Miskatonici, Stanley; Alhazred, Tyson; “Key to the Mysteries”, Webb.)
ALLEN, ZADOK (1832–1927?)
Town drunk of Innsmouth, Massachusetts. When he was around fifteen, the plague struck Innsmouth, and Allen’s father died as a result of it, a blow from which Allen never recovered. He became a member of the Esoteric Order of Dagon with the rest of the townsfolk, but was never admitted into the inmost circle. He left Innsmouth to fight in the Civil War, but returned to the town thereafter. He vanished during the summer of 1927 after a conversation with Robert Olmstead.
(“The Shadow over Innsmouth”, Lovecraft (O); “The Weird Shadow over Innsmouth”, Lovecraft and Glasby.)
ALPHABET OF NUG-SOTH
See Nug-Soth.
AMULET OF THE HOUND (also JADE HOUND)
Talisman of green jade in the shape of a winged hound, believed to be a stylized version of a Hound of Tindalos. These items are the emblems of a cannibalistic cult of Leng, providing one of its members with the ability to do as they please without regard to law or custom. The hound supposedly represents the corpse-eating spirits of the region.
Each amulet captures and destroys the souls that the wearer consumes in cannibalistic rites, adding to the magician’s power. A supernatural force slays those who take one of these amulets from its owner, whether living or dead, so long as the amulet is taken without permission. Other texts claim that the amulet protects the owner from the Hound until it is removed. The wizard Yakthoob might have owned such an amulet.
See Hounds of Tindalos. (“The Madness out of Time”, Carter; “The Hound,” Lovecraft (O); “An Eidolon of Nothing”, Pugmire; “Arcane Antiquities”, Sammons; “Then Terror Came”, Thomas; Necronomicon, Tyson.)
ANCIENT ONES
Transmogrified beings who have passed through the Ultimate Gate guarded by Tawil at’Umr. Though originally of many different species, they appear in Tawil at’Umr’s great temple as cloaked, sleeping figures bearing scepters and seated on pedestals. The Ancient Ones only wake to aid those who desire to enter the Ultimate Gate and join their number. It may be that the Ancient Ones are the Great Old Ones themselves.
See ‘Umr at-Tawil; Vatican Codex. (“Through the Gates of the Silver Key”, Lovecraft and Price.)
ANGELL, GEORGE GAMMELL (1857–1926)
Professor Emeritus of Semitic Languages at Brown University, who succumbed to a heart attack on November 23, 1926. Angell pioneered the research on the worldwide Cthulhu cult. Subsequent scholars, beginning with his nephew Francis Thurston, have built their conclusions upon this man’s work. He is also known for the creation of a library classification system dedicated to esoteric works.
See Cthulhu; R’lyeh; Thurston, Francis Wayland. (“The Call of Cthulhu” (graphic adaptation), Coulthart and Lovecraft; “The Call of Cthulhu”, Lovecraft (O); “The Atrocity Archives”, Stross.)
ANGLES OF TAGH CLATUR
Set of incantations that may bring beings from the Other Side to this world. Only the reversed angles, which make these creatures partly corporeal, may be used before the stars are right. (Some Egyptian high priests may have known these ceremonies and used them to bring Glaaki to Earth temporarily before his later physical arrival on a meteorite.) The Reversed Angles may also be used to provide protection against such beings.
See Glaaki. (“The Inhabitant of the Lake”, Campbell (O); “The Render of the Veils”, Campbell, “Something in the Moonlight”, Carter.)
ANTARKTOS, MOUNT
Mountain located near the South Pole, beneath which dwells the Great Old One Gol-goroth.
See Gol-goroth. (“The Fishers from Outside”, Carter; “Antarktos”, Lovecraft (O).)
APHOOM ZHAH
Flame-being spawned by Cthugha after that Great Old One was imprisoned. Aphoom Zhah appears as a gray flickering flame that freezes whatever it touches.
After leaving Fomalhaut, Aphoom Zhah spent some time on Yaksh before finally coming to Earth on Mount Yarak (or Yaanek) at the North Pole. According to the Pnakotic Manuscripts, the Elder Gods found him there and bound him in a deep pit beneath it. Aphoom Zhah poured out cold in its fury, freezing the land around it. This being was later responsible for directing Rlim Shaikorth to destroy the land of Mhu Thulan. In years to come, Aphoom Zhah himself created the cold which destroyed Hyperborea, Zobna, and Lomar.
Aphoom Zhah is believed to have spawned Gnoph-keh, Rhan-Tegoth, and Voorm. The Gnophkeh and the voormis are known to revere it, but it has no known human cult attached to it.
See Remnants of Lost Empires; Rlim Shaikorth; Voormish Tablets; Yaanek. (“Acolyte of the Flame”, Carter; “Zoth-Ommog”, Carter (O); “The Light from the Pole”, Carter and Smith.)
ARAN, MOUNT
Peak which lies in the Valley of Ooth-Nargai, near Celephaïs. Its lower slopes are covered with a lush forest of ginkgoes, while its summit remains snow-capped throughout the year. Though the Gods of Earth never danced upon this mountain, tales of strange ice sculptures make travelers reluctant to climb its slopes.
See Celephaïs. (“Celephaïs”, Lovecraft (O); “Iced on Aran”, Lumley.)
ARKHAM
Town located on the Miskatonic River in Essex County, Massachus
etts.
Arkham was founded in the latter 17th century by freethinkers who found the area’s religious communities too strict. Its name might derive from that of the Arkham family, who numbered among the town’s first inhabitants. The town grew slowly at first, with agriculture being the primary source of revenue. Around the year 1692, the witchcraft-fever that swept Salem also touched Arkham. The Arkham authorities sent at least one witch, Keziah Mason, to Salem for trial, and Goody Fowler was hung by an angry mob upon her return to town in 1704.